Industrial Sunset

“Survival’s a victory to be counted,” Machinist-poet Sue Doro, “Blue Collar Divides”

"Industrial Sunset" by Cindy C. Bean

In “Industrial Sunset: The Making of America’s Rust Belt, 1969-1984” Steven High asserts that heartland cities such as Gary that were dependent on a single industry or employer were more susceptible to decisions made at the distant headquarters of multinational corporations, whose self-serving policies often conflicted with local needs.  The purging of labor militants during the Cold War and union leadership’s support of the Vietnam war had weakened union solidarity at a time when collective resistance was vital in struggles that faced overwhelming odds.  Canadian workers had better success in stopping plant closings than their American counterparts, in part because the issue was framed within a nationalist context much more compelling than “Buy American” campaigns.  Canadian historian High concludes: “In spite of the aura of inevitability that surrounds industrial transformation, working people can and do make a difference.”  He references former IUN Labor Studies professor Bruce Nissen’s “Fighting for Jobs: Case Studies of Labor, Community Coalitions Confronting Plant Closings” (1995), which focuses on Northwest Indiana and the Calumet Project for Industrial Jobs, and IUN guest lecturer Staughton Lynd’s “The Fight against Shutdowns: Youngstown’s Steel Mill Closings” (1982).  While “Industrial Sunset” makes valuable use of personal narratives gleaned from oral histories, Steven High warns that they sometimes leave the impression that job loss is an individual rather than a collective experience and minimize past union struggles that garnered widespread popular support.  Although some Region plants closed (i.e., Blaw-Knox Steel Foundry in East Chicago, LTV Steel Bar Mill in Hammond), Northwest Indiana mills still produce steel in record amounts but with a skeleton labor force compared to a half-century ago.  

Flex Maldonado, Jackson 5 mural on cover of "Indy Windy"; Ish Muhammad (right) painting on "Aerosol Wall" (2009)

At a South Shore Arts gallery reception for “Indy Windy: A Love Story,” the first of a two-part “Urban Legends” series, I talked at length with curator Ish Muhammad, a member of CISA (Crazy Indiana Style Artists).  The exhibit booklet, still at the printers when Toni and I visited three days before, contains my essay “Gary Haunts.” After a quotation about urban ruination by Marxist scholar Marshall Berman, my opening paragraph states: “Gary’s haunts lie dormant near Lake Michigan and the steel mills responsible for their creation, sometimes inhabited by the homeless and visited by curiosity seekers and photographers fascinated by urban ruins. Still beautiful, they are representative of the grand illusions of early 20th-century city builders and symptomatic of a throw-away society with a short historic memory.”  Good friend Gloria Biondi asked if I were making any money from them.  The booklet contains “Broken Down Palace” by Chicagoan Eric Hollow (below), a poignant shot of the once-grand Palace Theater, which seated nearly 3,000 when it opened in 1925.  

below, City Methodist, 1960

"Abandoned" by Joey Lax Salinas

“Urban Haunts” curator John Cain grew up in postwar Gary and remembers fondly the way things were when the city “was perhaps at its apotheosis,”before “the great white migration out of the city.”  He wrote:

  City Methodist was where my family went to church. My mother, famously, attended on only three occasions: her wedding day, August 26, 1953; my baptism; and once to play the Virgin Mary in a Christmas Eve pageant in the sanctuary.  I was an angel.  I remember standing beside her, both of us shivering, as she smoked a cigarette on the steps outside waiting for our cue. 

John Attinasi brought 89-year-old jazz horn player Art Hoyle to the Archives for me to interview him.  The previous week, Hoyle had fallen down 12 steps and landed on his head, causing memory problems plus he was shaken by the recent sudden death of longtime friend Robert Shy, drummer in the Art Hoyle quintet. Nonetheless, he had great stories about moving to Gary at age 13 with his mother during the World War II boom years. They resided with his maternal uncle, Dr. Dudley Wellington Turner, who delivered over 300 babies one year and once treated boxer Jack Johnson. Turner needed a housekeeper after losing his wife, and she thought Art could use better discipline and educational opportunities.  Hoyle played freshman football for Roosevelt and scrimmaged against future IU All-American running back George Taliaferro, who, he said, ran over him and most everyone else. Musical influences included Roosevelt instructor Ernest Bennett and Gary band leader Thomas Crump.  Playing in Crump’s band at a Calumet City strip joint, he recalled that they were behind the curtain.  His biggest career mistake, he believed, was quitting the Earl Hines orchestra to join a traveling rock and roll show featuring Lloyd Price and Bo Diddley.   There were no trumpet solos to such Lloyd Price hits as “Stagger Lee” and “Personality,” he lamented.  With Lionel Hampton’s orchestra his long riff to “Smoke gets in Your Eyes” earned a three-minute standing ovation. Hoyle did radio voiceovers and recorded a narration of Martin Luther King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” doe a CD.  He donated one to the Archives.  After the hour-long interview, camera operator Samantha Gauer shook hands with Hoyle, honored to have met him. 

At IUN’s Faculty Organization to honor to retiring Sociologist Chuck Gallmeier, I sat next to former head of Technical Services Paul Sharpe, now at IU South Bend but back filling in for an ailing Carol Wood.  “I saw a recent copy of your magazine,” he exclaimed enigmatically.  Several faculty stopped to greet Sharpe, including the Chancellor, who turned to me and said, “What are you doing here?”  Long reports followed on eTextbooks, online courses, and new classroom technology (yawn). The only saving grace was that presenters Dean Mark Hoyert and Director Aaron Pigors were witty.  By the time I was introduced there were less than 2 minutes remaining until adjournment.  I skipped all but my final two paragraphs, telling the audience they could find additional anecdotes on my blog, and concluded by emphasizing that Chuck never let differences on university matters interfere with our friendship.  He later said I had him in tears and joked that, with all the accolades, maybe he’d change his mind and not retire.

 Melba Liston

John Attinasi had told me that he and Art Hoyle would be attending jazz pianist Billy Foster’s 3 p.m. Senior College class.  The timing was perfect, after the Faculty Org but prior to the South Shore Arts reception I thoroughly enjoyed Foster’s commentary and musical selections by bands led by the likes of Duke Ellington, Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, and Quincy Jones, who not only collaborated with jazz greats but such pop singers as Leslie Gore, Aretha Franklin, and Michael Jackson.  A clip of the Earl Hines group included Art Hoyle playing trumpet; another featured jazz trombonist Melba Liston with Clark Terry’s band.  According to Foster, women band members were uncommon, but Melba’s talents both as a soloist and as an arranger silenced doubters.  Melba formed an all-female quintet and composed for Diana Ross and Tony Bennett.

 Joel Henderson at Campbell Friendship House remains

The Unwanted Collective

naked lady by Veronica Napoli 

After driving through snow and popping a beer, I discovered in the exhibit booklet a photo urban explorer Joel Henderson took of St. Mary’s Mercy Hospital for a series called “LOST to TIME.”  On Comeuppence Network are Henderson'sphotos of abandoned Campbell Friendship House and what’s left of Memorial Auditorium. Also in the booklet were photos by IUN students who formed The Unwonted collective.  Chancellor Lowe used one by Richard Contreras on a Holiday card; Veronica Napoli’s nudes portraits were disconcerting when I saw them in the exhibit and equally unsettling in the booklet.

below Becca and Josh

Granddaughter Becca had the starring role of Maria in the Chesterton H.S. production of “The Sound of Music.”  Near the beginning, she sang the title song walking down the aisle, every few moments stopping to make eye contact with the audience.  My heart melted, I was so proud of her.  Fellow junior Paige Fowler had the role of eldest daughter Louisa, whose little sisters were played by freshman Isabelle Maddex and Maddex’s real-life siblings, sixth grader Jane and second grader Annie, a natural who brightened every scene she appeared in.  Senior Danny Schmiegel, Captain von Trapp, was Seymour in last year’s “Little Shop of Horrors.”  Becca’s friend Josh Sweet was in the ensemble but also played a priest and a Nazi.  At intermission I ran into bridge friend Barb Mort, whose face was blackened from a fall (it looked worse a few days ago, she claimed), there to see Elle Hodge as Countess Elsa, whom von Trapp dumps for Maria.  In the program Elle thanked Danny, her “Turtle King” of four years (was she jealous, I wondered, when Danny kissed Becca on stage?  Not if she’s a true thespian, Toni opined).  The variety of cast members’ first names fascinated me.  The only ones appearing twice were Katie, Emma, and Kayla.  James slept over with bowling buddies Andy English and Liam Craven, along with Phil, in from Grand Rapids, and Beth, up from Carmel.

 Khalil Mack sack

I made pancakes and kielbasa Sunday for our guests and perused “Industrial Sunset” after Arkansas edged IU in basketball by a single point despite Hoosier freshman sensation Romeo Langford’s 22 points. Worse yet, New Orleans was slaughtering the Philadelphia Eagles, and I heard about the career-threatening injury to Redskin QB Alex Smith.  In the evening, however, the Bears proved they were for real, defeating Minnesota despite a mediocre performance by QB Mitch Trubisky, thanks to amazing play by the defense.  Michael Chirich had friends over whom, he said, spent as much time looking at “Gary: A Pictorial History” as the game.  Dan Vance discovered himself in a 1985 Post-Tribphoto by Chuck Dillard taken at the Alibi Lounge on Miller Brews Brothers Night, Monday, December 2, 1985. That evening the Bears suffered their only loss of the season, 38-24, to the Miami Dolphins.

 Coach Jerry Vlasic

Longtime Bishop Noll football coach (1971-1996) Jerry Vlasic died at age 81.  His 1975 squad went undefeated, and in 1989 the Noll Warriors won the Class 3A championship, beating Indianapolis Roncalli 20-14.  Former player Joe Angyus recalled: “Coach Vlasic became the person to whom I needed and looked to for direction.  He was larger than life, had a way of having fun, yet was a fierce competitor and had a similar effect on so many.”  Players recalled him always donning shorts at practice, regardless of the weather. When I was a Portage Little League coach, he was often at games, in shorts that showed off his muscular legs. He was big handsome, charismatic guy. Wish I had known him better.

Being Thanksgiving week, a surprisingly large number of couples, nine, showed up for duplicate bridge at Chesterton YMCA.  People brought up the bridge Newsletter photo of Jim and Marcia Carson wearing crowns as Barbara Walczak noted their monster 76.39% game.  I wondered if Walczak might have doctored the original, but on vacation in the Alps they had been dubbed king and queen of the Matterhorn.  Charlie Halberstadt and I finished first with a 68.75%, worth .90 of a master point.  Chuck and Marcy came in second with a 66.67%, usually enough to win.  The margin of difference was that we made a small slam against them, thanks to Charlie’s bold bid of six Diamonds.  All evening we got favorable trump splits.  Marcy brought up that classes were cancelled all week both at VU and IUN.  She attended IUN when the university even held classes the day before Thanksgiving, including Wednesday evening.  When the issue came up for debate in the Faculty Org, Rhiman Rotz and Jack Bloom were defenders of the status quo while most of us sympathized with faculty who needed to be home preparing for next day’s dinner. Many simply cancelled class.